Aggressive-Antisocial Boys Develop Into Physically Strong Young Men

Young men with superior upper-body strength typically show a greater proclivity for physical aggression than their weaker male counterparts. The traditional interpretation of this phenomenon is that young men calibrate their attitudes and behaviors to their physical formidability. Physical strength...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2015-04, Vol.26 (4), p.444-455
Main Authors: Isen, Joshua D., McGue, Matthew K., Iacono, William G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation, Physiological - physiology
Adolescent
Adolescent Development - physiology
Adolescents
Aggression
Aggression - psychology
Aggressiveness
Anti-social behaviour
Antisocial personality disorder
Antisocial Personality Disorder - psychology
Behavior
Child
Childhood
Congruence
Female
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Males
Masculinity
Men
Physical growth
Puberty
Sex Characteristics
Social psychology
Young men
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Summary:Young men with superior upper-body strength typically show a greater proclivity for physical aggression than their weaker male counterparts. The traditional interpretation of this phenomenon is that young men calibrate their attitudes and behaviors to their physical formidability. Physical strength is thus viewed as a causal antecedent of aggressive behavior. The present study is the first to examine this phenomenon within a developmental framework. We capitalized on the fact that physical strength is a male secondary sex characteristic. In two longitudinal cohorts of children, we estimated adolescent change in upper-body strength using the slope parameter from a latent growth model. We found that males' antisocial tendencies temporally precede their physical formidability. Boys, but not girls, with greater antisocial tendencies in childhood attained larger increases in physical strength between the ages of 11 and 17. These results support sexual selection theory, indicating an adaptive congruence between male-typical behavioral dispositions and subsequent physical masculinization during puberty.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797614567718